Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
Speaker 1: tuning in. This is a two parter, parter parter parter,
Speaker 1: part thank you too, Part two. It's two part part
Speaker 1: part part two. Thanks to our super producer mister Max Williams,
Speaker 1: also research associate on this. This became our entire week
Speaker 1: because Noel, you and I have a lot of opinions
Speaker 1: about the candies. And I'm bet by the way.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, and it's me no and I don't
Speaker 2: know what do you say? We dive right in to
Speaker 2: the chocolate river.
Speaker 1: Let's have a reading of the of a little piece
Speaker 1: of satire written for the Sundial coming out of Ohio
Speaker 1: State Credit to the authors, Sarah Palazzo and Emily Pratt.
Speaker 3: As the festivities of Halloween come to a close, we
Speaker 3: find our subject an almond joy candy left forgotten at
Speaker 3: the bottom of his child's candy bag. He is no
Speaker 3: stranger to this life. After going uneaten, he must endure
Speaker 3: the annual humiliation of being given away on the following Halloween,
Speaker 3: being passed on to child after child, for he has
Speaker 3: never wanted in anyone's home. The endless cycle of fleeting
Speaker 3: hope and crushing rejection never gets easier for our unfortunate
Speaker 3: Almond Joy.
Speaker 1: So it's the fruitcake argument.
Speaker 3: It's true.
Speaker 2: I do recognize I'm in the minority in liking Almond Joe.
Speaker 2: But hey, I clean up on Halloween, you know, because
Speaker 2: my kid gives me all the Almond Joy.
Speaker 1: Cleaning up on Halloween is pretty good. How many of
Speaker 1: those Almondjoys make it to next Halloween?
Speaker 3: Oh God, I don't know. There's no leftover candy. It's
Speaker 3: they had to be consumed. No, I don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't end up with like that many because
Speaker 2: I guess to Max's point, it does feel like it
Speaker 2: is sort of the red headed step child of the
Speaker 2: you know, candy grab bag that is often purchased, so
Speaker 2: you know, you got to give it out to somebody.
Speaker 2: But then I guess they trickle down to it does
Speaker 2: seem like kind of like a dad candy.
Speaker 3: So I wear it with bride.
Speaker 1: Now, Max, can you break down for us a little
Speaker 1: bit of how Ohio State speaks to you nostalgically for
Speaker 1: all of them Joy?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's just like you know, my opinions on
Speaker 4: almond Joy are so strong that So I'm a diehard
Speaker 4: University of Michigan fan, so I hate Ohio State, but
Speaker 4: I will quote them if we're making fun of Almondjoy together.
Speaker 4: But also, University of Michigan's head coach, head coach doesn't
Speaker 4: dance with a whistle in.
Speaker 5: His mouth, So I'm all good.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know. I don't know about you, but uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that flew over.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, that's fine. There'll be some do we need
Speaker 3: to wait next?
Speaker 1: Are you saying we need to have whistles? Or so?
Speaker 4: Before last year's Ohio State Michigan game, Ohio State's head
Speaker 4: coach Ryan Day, who, if he loses for a fourth
Speaker 4: straight time, will certainly be fired. I know a number
Speaker 4: of Ohio State fans who wish.
Speaker 5: He was already fired. Uh.
Speaker 4: There is a video, very unfortunate video of him dancing
Speaker 4: the He's in the middle with all the players around,
Speaker 4: He's dancing around with a whistleless mouth, and it's like
Speaker 4: the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: All Right, Well, if it's not too subversive, I suggest
Speaker 1: we put a max with the facts in on that one.
Speaker 3: Why not? Why not sports? These sports a dish.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it does appear that there are some very
Speaker 2: new England roots to almond Joy. According to an article
Speaker 2: from mash dot com, The Untold Truth of Almondjoy, it
Speaker 2: got its roots in Naugatuck, Connecticut with the candy seller
Speaker 2: Peter Paul Halajian, who founded the Peter Paul Candy Company
Speaker 2: in nineteen nineteen, and more than two decades later, the almond.
Speaker 3: Joy was born a you know, a little I.
Speaker 2: Guess elliptical, you know, nugget of a coconut covered in
Speaker 2: milk chocolate set with a crunchy almond.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And here's the thing you might be wondering, ridiculous historians,
Speaker 1: why did Peter Paul Hallijohn create the Peter Paul Candy Company.
Speaker 1: He changed his last name to Paul because it being
Speaker 1: mispronounced Halla John or halle John. Yeah, kept being mispronounced.
Speaker 1: And the roots of this company do date back to
Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds. But the almond Joy's real moment
Speaker 1: in the sun arrives in the nineteen forties. And it
Speaker 1: turns out we weren't just citing mounds for fun and games.
Speaker 1: Although I do love again this stand up comedian Shen
Speaker 1: Wang shen Wang. You gotta check him out. He's so good.
Speaker 1: He has a great bit on Almond Joy mounts. And
Speaker 1: it turns out that Mounds themselves are part of the
Speaker 1: reason for the success of the Almond Joy.
Speaker 2: I guess I never realized that Mounds came first. So
Speaker 2: in the earliest days of the Peter Paul Candy Company,
Speaker 2: now with name change, Peter Paul himself had quite a
Speaker 2: few different confections that he had designed, different candy bars too,
Speaker 2: including coconut one called the ConA Bar, which is chocolate, coconuts, nuts,
Speaker 2: and some fruits. And that was actually one of the
Speaker 2: first kind of I guess flag not flagship, but like
Speaker 2: you know, a unique creation of the Peter Paul Candy Company.
Speaker 2: This is according to Connecticut Explored. Mounds came around in
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty one as a combo of coconut filling, coated
Speaker 2: and dark chocolate, and I guess, based on the way
Speaker 2: things went, it kind of served as almost a prototype
Speaker 2: for the Almond Joy. But even before the Almond Joy
Speaker 2: came along, was quite popular in its own right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Mounds was quite successful and when Paul unfortunately
Speaker 1: passes away in nineteen twenty seven, Carl Kazigian decides to
Speaker 1: specialize in candy, and there is a beauty to specificity.
Speaker 1: So he says, look, we're going to get rid of
Speaker 1: most of the other stuff we're making and we're going
Speaker 1: to focus on the things that are doing the best
Speaker 1: in the market, which are mounds. And they said, you know,
Speaker 1: we also have a problem because mounds are our best seller.
Speaker 1: But we have to make every literally every single mound
Speaker 1: by hand. So here's what col does that's very smart.
Speaker 1: He automates it. He takes like a Henry Ford approach
Speaker 1: and builds an assembly line to create the mounds. And
Speaker 1: this means they can sell more mounds. People really love them.
Speaker 1: And so in the nineteen thirties, the Peter Paul Candy
Speaker 1: Company becomes this is a true story, folks, the world's
Speaker 1: largest single consumer of coconuts.
Speaker 3: Wow, there's something to be said about that.
Speaker 2: At this time, with even with the assembly line stuff
Speaker 2: and the kind of modernization of the process, still wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been fully automated. I guess I'm picturing sort of
Speaker 2: like that I Love Lucy bit where Lucy and Ethel
Speaker 2: are like trying to wrap candies or something on this
Speaker 2: assembly line and it goes out out of control and
Speaker 2: so fast, and like Lucy to keep up, just start
Speaker 2: shoving the candies in her mouth. I'm guessing it's sort
Speaker 2: of there's still a human element at this point, even
Speaker 2: with this insane scaling that you know, would just be
Speaker 2: operating on one of those like conveyed type assembly lines.
Speaker 1: And so just like Swanson with all those turkeys that
Speaker 1: led to the invention of the frozen dinner, Peter Paul
Speaker 1: Candy Company is looking around the boardroom and they're they're
Speaker 1: a wash with coconuts. They're riddled with coconuts. The boardroom
Speaker 1: probably asks crates of coconuts, and they're like, what are
Speaker 1: we gonna do with all.
Speaker 4: The guys proposing something in a coconut falls and knocks
Speaker 4: them out, Yes, yeah, and everything.
Speaker 1: And they're like, dang, Jeremy's out of the game. Almond
Speaker 1: Joy is developed as a result of this. They used
Speaker 1: to make a thing called dream Bars, which were coconut
Speaker 1: and diced almonds, but they invent almond Joy as an
Speaker 1: evolution of this in nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 2: That's interesting because you think it would assembly no maybe
Speaker 2: not maybe assembly line wise, plopping that almond on there
Speaker 2: on its own, is easier than dicing in and putting
Speaker 2: it in there. But it also allowed them to have
Speaker 2: two different candies that used the surplus of coconut, so
Speaker 2: they essentially were able to double their output. Both of
Speaker 2: the candies come in packages of two of these small
Speaker 2: bars and have the same exact filling. So there we go,
Speaker 2: two coconuts with one coconut, and then Almond Joy of
Speaker 2: course uses milk chocolate and adds that whole almond. The
Speaker 2: almond is actually, you know, as answers my previous question,
Speaker 2: the almond is actually coated in chocolate before being added
Speaker 2: to the bar, and then the whole deal is coated again,
Speaker 2: and this protects the almond from getting soggy and gives
Speaker 2: you know, folks, kind of a little extra hit of chocolate.
Speaker 1: And Max compares coconut to coca nut to poison, which
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, Max, I gotta tell you, man,
Speaker 1: have you ever had a good curry?
Speaker 4: I mean, I had forgotten that I wrote that line.
Speaker 4: And because this is this is my moment of truth
Speaker 4: right here. Yeah, I actually kind of like almond Joys,
Speaker 4: Like I never seek them out, but I don't I
Speaker 4: don't mind them.
Speaker 5: It's more than I just.
Speaker 4: Can't have them with the condition con That's where this
Speaker 4: entire thing came from, is I can't have any candy
Speaker 4: because of the condition ASID, I can't have chocolate, I
Speaker 4: can't have almonds.
Speaker 2: But uh yeah no, but then a good coconut curry
Speaker 2: is the jam huge fan.
Speaker 1: I gotta cook them for you sometimes, you guys, I'm
Speaker 1: getting pretty good at it. But all right, still, uh
Speaker 1: we have more satire from Palazzo and Pratt about the
Speaker 1: almond joy spoiler. I don't think we have to read
Speaker 1: the whole thing. It is again arguing a kind of
Speaker 1: fruitcake comparison. What we mean when we say fruitcake comparison
Speaker 1: is the old troop. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: have heard of this, the old trope that because fruitcakes
Speaker 1: are shelf stable, someone will give it to someone as
Speaker 1: a holiday thing, and the next holiday someone will just
Speaker 1: send it back. They'll regift fruitcakes. Sure, I don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: have you guys ever eaten fruitcake? Are you a fan?
Speaker 2: I don't think on purpose, No, now that I think
Speaker 2: about it, I just don't like those kind of weird
Speaker 2: preserved candied fruits. They're just a little sacriny something about
Speaker 2: it just doesn't It's the weird colors, the green cherries,
Speaker 2: you know, a little lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean one year Alex got a fruitcake for the
Speaker 4: family for Christmas and it's sat in the family fridge
Speaker 4: for weeks until somebody just threw it away because it
Speaker 4: was a joke.
Speaker 1: But right, that would be Alex Williams, biological brother of
Speaker 1: Max and our composer for Ridiculous History.
Speaker 4: I remember, well, y'all have an episode about fruitcakes for
Speaker 4: Antarctic explorers or something that, right, because the funny, funny
Speaker 4: story here. I was a fan of the show before
Speaker 4: I worked on it, so I remember listening to that
Speaker 4: one and be like, oh, that's my fruitcake?
Speaker 1: Are you serious? Yeah? I don't think I've told you
Speaker 1: guys that you have never Oh wow, and here we
Speaker 1: are learning on the hot streets of the internet. Thank you, Max.
Speaker 1: That's very kind. We have other directions to go, of course,
Speaker 1: for many people listening, you might be thinking of other
Speaker 1: candy that has yet to be named, and you might
Speaker 1: be thinking, what about those red hots, what about all
Speaker 1: the cinnamon flavored.
Speaker 3: Candy, lemon heads perhaps.
Speaker 1: Lemon heads perhaps, what about laughy taffy. What about you know,
Speaker 1: do you guys remember in days of childhood Halloween the
Speaker 1: orange and black wax paper wrapped taffies. Was that just
Speaker 1: in my neighbors.
Speaker 3: Saltwater taffy kind of situation?
Speaker 2: They had no label, they were greatly bought in bold. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I do know what you're talking about. Some of them
Speaker 2: would be various kind of pale colors, you know, pink,
Speaker 2: pinks and blues and things like that.
Speaker 1: Distressingly so somehow pallid and love crafting.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 1: There's also another one. We didn't talk. You mentioned bit
Speaker 1: of honey before earlier, right, so it did.
Speaker 5: Can I go a little bit round about this one? Yeah,
Speaker 5: because it's like, so I've been using the start.
Speaker 4: I used this article from Local Syracuse by Megan Hatches. Basically,
Speaker 4: this is a pole like these are the candies that
Speaker 4: people hate, and bet o'honey was on there. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I don't agree with that one. So like our equipment
Speaker 4: distributor Sweetwater, one of the big things they do is
Speaker 4: they send a bag of candy to people and we
Speaker 4: get better honey all the time on that and laffy.
Speaker 3: He always had lafi.
Speaker 4: He always Lafti tavy too, and uh, I remember being
Speaker 4: like a bit of honey and then I I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: that's actually like pretty good. It's got a nostalgia, it's like,
Speaker 4: you know, it's so MATERITISI roll. But I think it's
Speaker 4: not a bad candy at all.
Speaker 1: It tastes like honey n cheerios.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just like a very concentrated version of honey cheerios.
Speaker 1: So would you want to eat an entire tobleroam bar equivalent?
Speaker 1: Probably not in one sitting, right, but I put away
Speaker 1: two or three. You probably put it? Yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's I think. Also the genius of a lot of
Speaker 1: candy is the idea of individual packaging and wrapping.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Like, you know another thing we didn't have on the
Speaker 1: list here you guys, do you remember the wax lips? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is that candy? Are you supposed to eat it?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: It was you supposed to put it in your mouth
Speaker 2: and make a silly face as it makes you look goofy.
Speaker 2: Or there'd be different ones with like you know, you
Speaker 2: could get ones in a like vampire fangs. Do you
Speaker 2: remember a Looney Tunes episode? I can't remember who said it?
Speaker 2: But someone was like asking maybe bugs Bunny for a tip, like,
Speaker 2: you know, a monetary tip, and he says, never leave
Speaker 2: wax lips on the dresser by an open window on
Speaker 2: a hot day.
Speaker 1: That is technically true. That is technically a tip, A
Speaker 1: good tip. Uh yeah, So shout out to Waco Wax.
Speaker 1: They're one of the biggest manufacturer sheet stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, still to this day they must be the only
Speaker 3: game in town.
Speaker 2: Can't be a big crowded marketplace for wax lips anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm sure TIMU makes some, right, because TIMU makes everything.
Speaker 1: Have you guys gotten the TMU ads?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're probably bizarre, right, But like I'm looking now
Speaker 2: at like the classic configuration, you'd have one that was
Speaker 2: like a you know, pretty lady lipstick type lips, and
Speaker 2: then there'd be vampire fangs, and then one was like
Speaker 2: it's like a mustache. There are probably some other variations.
Speaker 2: Those are the ones that I remember from from the classics.
Speaker 1: But wait for it. Do you know who owns Wacko
Speaker 1: wax Mmm, Twtsy roll Industries.
Speaker 2: It does say in some of the descriptions that they're chewable,
Speaker 2: but you're literally just chewing wax. It's like non flavored gum.
Speaker 1: It's like, I think it's called food grade paraffe in wax,
Speaker 1: which does not sound appetizing.
Speaker 2: Anytime you say food grade, you think it always is
Speaker 2: a little sus right.
Speaker 1: It's an implication. You know, it's up there with cheese
Speaker 1: food product.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. We mentioned laffy taffy quite a bit.
Speaker 2: Do I do appreciate their jokes. There's some good dad
Speaker 2: jokes contained within laffy taffy packaging.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are laughy for sure. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: Bazooka bubblegum. They had a comic book in there, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and laffy Taffy's really do there is good taffy.
Speaker 2: It's not my thing, but like you know, if you
Speaker 2: go to like a beachside community or something where they've
Speaker 2: got a little boardwalk, there's gonna be like people stretching
Speaker 2: the taffy. It's again, it's just classic Americana. But guys,
Speaker 2: moment of truth, how do you feel about licorice? Black
Speaker 2: licorice specifically, because that's even a stand in for a
Speaker 2: term for like something that's an acquired taste.
Speaker 3: You say that guy's black licorice, you.
Speaker 1: Know, good friend of the show, Lauren Vogelbaum, who may
Speaker 1: be returning soon, is a fan of licorice. One time
Speaker 1: she reached out to me and she told me that
Speaker 1: she had some licorice that was too far for her,
Speaker 1: some drops of licorice that were like cough drops, you know,
Speaker 1: like like a little robotussin or something kind of cough drop,
Speaker 1: but it was licorice flavored. It was sent to her
Speaker 1: for her show she does with any Reese called Savor,
Speaker 1: and they were like, this is a treat in Northern Europe,
Speaker 1: and she tried one and she said she couldn't get
Speaker 1: the taste out of her mouth for like an hour, So.
Speaker 3: It's it can be very intense.
Speaker 2: And yeah, in Europe they pride themselves on the intensity
Speaker 2: of their licorice candies.
Speaker 1: Great Western Europe is saying to themselves, if we would
Speaker 1: be known for one thing, Yes, it's the intensity of
Speaker 1: our licorice.
Speaker 2: Licorice it is in fact derived from a plant that
Speaker 2: actually has some I believe medicinal properties.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're talking and it tastes
Speaker 1: like it does. Glycer is a glabra, right, which does
Speaker 1: sound like the name of a villain in Harry Potter
Speaker 1: or James Bond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it has anti inflammatory properties, can act as
Speaker 2: an antioxidant, and there's also antimicrobial it can it can
Speaker 2: help reduce acid reflux.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's generally recognized as safe. There are some problems
Speaker 1: with it. If you eat too much licorice, you might
Speaker 1: lower your potassium levels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking about that right exactly, so that it
Speaker 2: wants you to know about the Great potassium Conspiracy about like,
Speaker 2: you know, supplement We're going to do a whole episode
Speaker 2: on supplements. But that's interesting because apparently potassium, the way
Speaker 2: it is absorbed or something like it, it's harder to
Speaker 2: get from supplements than say vitamin C or what have you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: Licorice is interesting because it's one of those love it
Speaker 1: or hate it things like I don't see a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are very middling about licorice. I see
Speaker 1: people who have an adverse reaction or they're big fans.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's funny because people will sometimes refer
Speaker 2: to twizzlers or red vines as red licorice, but it's
Speaker 2: not the same at all. There's none of that licorice
Speaker 2: flavor is in that it's just a similar medium, you know,
Speaker 2: for delivering kind of a sugary, strawberry adjacent chewy treat.
Speaker 2: I actually quite like Twizzlers for a treat at the movies.
Speaker 2: I like it you can bite off each end and
Speaker 2: use it as a straw for your soda.
Speaker 1: I like a lot of stuff at cinema that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally eat.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: I gotta say I love a Nestley crunch because I
Speaker 1: associate it with watch movies and you crutch it just
Speaker 1: like putting em and m's in the popcorn or something
Speaker 1: and shaking it up. You got a nice, sweet, salty treat.
Speaker 1: I do have one question for you guys. For everybody peeps,
Speaker 1: for them against.
Speaker 2: Them, it's a marshmallow like so, I mean, I'm okay
Speaker 2: with it in general, but I don't love it.
Speaker 3: They're a little too sugaring.
Speaker 4: Did you guys see the last week tonight? Like they
Speaker 4: had like a period where they decided to go after peeps,
Speaker 4: maybe like a number of videos.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't hate them, I don't love them.
Speaker 4: They're fine. I agree with Milsteate completely. They're just like
Speaker 4: a marshmallow that's a little too intense.
Speaker 1: Okay, They're a marshmallow that went on. It's interesting because
Speaker 1: they I think they originally came out in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, and they were always a seasonally base thing,
Speaker 1: so it's not like candy corn, where they sort of
Speaker 1: found where they fit in. They were always marketed originally
Speaker 1: at Easter, so I think that's why you don't see
Speaker 1: them happening as a you know, like a nostalgic piece
Speaker 1: of other celebrations. When did little duckies start being associated
Speaker 1: with Easter? I've always wondered baby ducklings. I guess maybe
Speaker 1: just because they're sort of spring springy associated, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't know, because new birth perhaps the yeah, maybe
Speaker 2: rebirths because they're baby ducklings. But you know, I understand
Speaker 2: the rabbits, even though that doesn't make much sense either.
Speaker 2: The Easter bunny what that has to do with the resurrection.
Speaker 1: How many poor kids grew up like and I say poor,
Speaker 1: not financially, I'm just like, I feel bad for all
Speaker 1: of us. How many kids grew up thinking there's a
Speaker 1: species of giant rabbits that lays eggs, you know, and
Speaker 1: then hides them and then hides them, and it's your
Speaker 1: job to high this rabbit. It's very strange.
Speaker 3: It's a little lot.
Speaker 1: Maybe a history of Easter as a future episode. But
Speaker 1: what do we think, guys, any other candy that we
Speaker 1: find just awful?
Speaker 5: Or can I just give you all the flavors necho wafers?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, do they even realize they had? Like they
Speaker 3: thought the same.
Speaker 4: There's eight flavorsnna, you guys gonna encringe at some of them.
Speaker 4: We got winter green chocolate, which by far, by, by far,
Speaker 4: chocolate's the best one, lime, lemon, clove, cinnamon, orange.
Speaker 5: And here's the last one. Yeah, licorice.
Speaker 3: Ah, yeah, yep.
Speaker 5: They got licorice.
Speaker 2: Those things just feel like a pill, like, you know,
Speaker 2: like it's yeah, something about them.
Speaker 3: This feels so medicinal.
Speaker 4: My dad was so happy when I give him to
Speaker 4: him on Christmas and he said, oh, Max, to want someone,
Speaker 4: Oh sorry, I can't have them with the condition, dad,
Speaker 4: And I was so glad I could use that as
Speaker 4: an excuse, like, nope, can't have those Oh the condition
Speaker 4: the condition?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the ultimate the ultimate reason.
Speaker 3: Right. Uh, we got.
Speaker 1: Your back there, Max. We also want to shout out
Speaker 1: I think it was wasn't it? Stuff you should know?
Speaker 1: Did a necho Wafers episode. Am I recalling that correctly?
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm not familiar with that one.
Speaker 2: I always also kind of associate necho wafers with not smarties.
Speaker 2: What are the ones that literally look like little pills
Speaker 2: that come rolled up.
Speaker 3: They're kind of smaller than necho wafers.
Speaker 1: But they're not smarties.
Speaker 3: They're not smarties. Smarties are around.
Speaker 1: Right right, and TikTok is got rolled up?
Speaker 3: What am I thinking of?
Speaker 1: Killdy Well, while you're looking that up, I want to
Speaker 1: shout out, shout out our Alma Matter, How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: a greater Smarties.
Speaker 3: Oh, they're definitely smarties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're their little pill like they look like an
Speaker 2: aspirin or something, but they're essentially, I think, following the
Speaker 2: lead of neco wafers. I'm not quite sure what the
Speaker 2: chronology is there. They don't purport to have differing flavors.
Speaker 2: I want to shout out this article from our Alma
Speaker 2: Matter House Stuff Works by John Donovan, which answers the
Speaker 2: question some people maybe having in the audience. Max in particular,
Speaker 2: how did the necho wafer.
Speaker 1: Last so long? Because it's kind of like other you know,
Speaker 1: if you go into a cracker barrel or a country
Speaker 1: store kind of thing. You see a lot of, you know,
Speaker 1: candy of yesteryear, like Penny Candy, Rock Crystal candy, Warhouse
Speaker 1: spelled hore Hound malamars.
Speaker 2: That's love marshmallowy chocolatey thing. Really quickly though, I was
Speaker 2: looking at the history of Smarties and they definitely are
Speaker 2: pretty pretty adjacent to Neco Wafers, founded in nineteen forty
Speaker 2: nine by Edward d. He actually repurposed a World War
Speaker 2: Two pellet making machine to make and that's where the
Speaker 2: shape of these things come to center.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had no idea, And also shout out
Speaker 1: to Max who just slid us a note during class
Speaker 1: about pepsi peeps.
Speaker 2: About pepsi peeps, but that sounds like something you'd take
Speaker 2: for a upset stomach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I learned that one from last week tonight. I've
Speaker 4: never had one, but there was a there was a
Speaker 4: period where pepsi and peeps did a combination. Oh god, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't know what it days, but it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: awful marshmallows and awful soda mixed together.
Speaker 1: And in February of twenty twenty three they got back
Speaker 1: together because they have worked with each other for some time.
Speaker 1: It appears this goes all the way to the top
Speaker 1: of soda and sugar and candy. And I can't believe it,
Speaker 1: but we made this a two parter.
Speaker 3: Huh what do you think?
Speaker 2: I think we did too. The last thing on Smarty Sorry,
Speaker 2: one of the top results that comes up when you
Speaker 2: google Smarties is are Smarties made of chalk? So there
Speaker 2: you go, But no, I think this is a delightful
Speaker 2: tuope parter.
Speaker 5: And I got one last thing to leave us with there.
Speaker 4: If you type in candy corn jokes into Google, you
Speaker 4: will find that's one of the top things. A candy
Speaker 4: corn looking in the mirror and says, well, I.
Speaker 2: Like me, you go good cute looking, they have a
Speaker 2: nice shape. I like the the aesthetics of candy corn.
Speaker 2: I just don't want to eat them.
Speaker 1: I also, you know, I also want to note there
Speaker 1: are things like seafood flavored candy out there by Japanese
Speaker 1: squid candy. It's not bad. There are pickles flavored candies.
Speaker 1: What we're going to see is that throughout the world
Speaker 1: of candy, you can properly find the texture and the
Speaker 1: taste that you're looking for.
Speaker 3: Agreed. It's out there.
Speaker 2: If you can imagine it, then chances are someone has created.
Speaker 1: It and thinks as always for joining us, folks. Big
Speaker 1: big thanks to our super producer and research associate, mister
Speaker 1: Max Williams. Big thanks to Alex Williams, composer of this
Speaker 1: slapping bop. You here at the end of every show.
Speaker 1: What candy do you think Jonathan Strickland aka the Quist
Speaker 1: and Joyce do you think he's a candy man?
Speaker 2: Well, he's in the sense that if you say his
Speaker 2: name a certain number of times that year or you
Speaker 2: will appear and murder you with his hook hand.
Speaker 4: I mean I think he might go like, you know,
Speaker 4: the dentist route and eat Apples's candy.
Speaker 2: Got to get you a toilet papering job instantly on Halloween.
Speaker 1: Oh, Pez, Pez is what I was thinking about.
Speaker 2: Related very adjacent, but at least they figured out that
Speaker 2: we'll sell the shy candy uh so that they can
Speaker 2: get the toy and then the dispenser, you know.
Speaker 3: And then the Pez dispensers was born.
Speaker 1: I think Pez is original, or at least the dispenser
Speaker 1: was meant to be an anti smoking aid or some
Speaker 1: fun story for another day.
Speaker 3: Perhaps, Yeah, thank you to Pez for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually think, if I'm not mistaken, we've talked
Speaker 2: a bit about the history of PEZ, and I think
Speaker 2: it's a story onto itself, Like I believe there are
Speaker 2: some twists and turns in that one, So maybe we'll
Speaker 2: revisit that for a future episode.
Speaker 3: But man, yeah, no, this is fun.
Speaker 1: Thanks also to Christopher Hasiotis, Eve's Jeff cot Gabe Luzier
Speaker 1: our pals at Ridiculous Crime, and we got an excellent
Speaker 1: opportunity to hang out with them recently. So check out
Speaker 1: that crossover wherein we as a group play a game
Speaker 1: called twenty Questions.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.